About

My name is Aitor Valdesogo and I am a PhD student in the department of history at the University of Notre Dame. I earned my B.A. in History in 2019 and my master’s degree in Latin American Studies in 2021, both from the University of Salamanca (Spain). My master’s thesis addressed human rights throughout history and the role of Latin America in the globalization of the human rights discourse in the second half of the 20th century. I have been working as a research assistant for the last two years at the University of Salamanca.

My research interests pivot on human rights advocacy networks in the 20th century, especially focused on the relations between Latin America and the U.S. human rights movements. I would like to investigate how particular activists —both American and Latin American— and official institutions contributed to broaden these networks, which had a substantial impact on the democratization processes and transitional justice. I also believe it is fundamental to have a deeper knowledge of American history in order to have a better comprehension of Latin American recent history.

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Podcast

Racial and Religious Self-Governance in the Spanish Atlantic World with Historian Karen Graubart

Mar 14, 2023

Interviewed by Kellogg PhD Fellows Aitor Valdesogo and Juan Vargas, historian Karen Graubart, who is a Kellogg Institute faculty fellow, introduces her recently published book, "Republics of Difference: Religious and Racial Self-Governance in the Spanish Atlantic World" (Oxford University Press, 2022). The result of more than 15 years of research, this book explores the mechanisms of self-governance that racialized and/or non-Christian communities put into practice in 15th-century Seville and 16th-17th century Lima.